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A campaign to force China’s Communist Party members to study the speeches of President Xi Jinping and “consolidate” Marxism among their ranks has been launched, a move seen as part of a wider “deification process” geared towards the Chinese leader.

The one-year campaign aims to ensure “ideological and political consistency” based on Mr Xi’s speeches and Marxism, according to the official notice.

Cadres are also urged to study the party’s “constitution and rules”, and are reminded of disgraced leaders who have failed to abide by “good values”. Among those mentioned in the campaign are Bo Xilai, a rising political star who fell in a corruption scandal in 2013, and Zhou Yongkang, China’s former security chief, who has given a life sentence for graft last year.

People walk across a street in Beijing as a screen shows a speech by Xi JinpingCredit:
EPA/WANG WEI

The campaign calls for members to study a “series of speeches” from Mr Xi, and his “important thoughts” on a range of policy areas.

President Xi has made a high-profile campaign against corruption and official extravagance one of the cornerstones of his rule. Observers say that while the drive is popular among ordinary Chinese, it lacks transparency and is widely seen as an attempt to marginalise opponents.

Mr Xi said the new campaign aims to “consolidate Party members' Marxist positions and ensure that the entire Party maintains a high degree of ideological and political consistency.

“The campaign will cover every branch in the Party's network and every member,” he added, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua.

The campaign is part of a wider clampdown on dissent within the party of almost 88 million members, Zhang Lifan, a well-known historian and commentator told The Telegraph.

A man looks at a building covered in hundreds of posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping in ShanghaiCredit:
REUTERS/Aly Song

Mr Zhang said the Chinese president was worried that he could be challenged by an opponent at next year’s 19th Party Congress, a high-level gathering of members which takes place every four years.

“Xi is trying to tighten his control on thoughts,” Mr Zhang said. “When the campaign refers to awareness of ‘consistency’, this actually means that members should take Mr Xi as the role model. It is just part of the deification process - Xi is the incarnation of the party.”

Disciplinary rules launched in October forbade members from making “articles, speeches or announcements to support bourgeois liberalisation” or for “slandering the central government’s policies and plans”.